INSIDE THE BULLS.

Jordan Blames Layoff

Well, since they won their Eastern Conference final series opener against the Miami Heat on Tuesday night at the United Center, maybe it did them some good. But they struggled in the first half of their 84-77 victory because of a lack of offensive crispness.

"Unfortunately, we didn't play the kind of basketball we're capable of playing in the first half," Michael Jordan said after leading all scorers with 37 points. "A lot, possibly, had to do with the layoff."

But Bulls coach Phil Jackson said the layoff also may have helped his team, particularly Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc, who nursed injuries over the last month of the regular season.

"It was good to have a week off," Jackson said. "We needed to get some rest for some of our guys. Dennis had a big board night (19 rebounds) and kept the ball alive for us. It was also good for Toni to get some rest. Even though he did not look good in the first half, he played with some energy in the second half."

Free-throw woes: The Heat lost the game on the free-throw line, where it was 15 of 30. Alonzo Mourning was 7 of 15 from the line, including five key misses down the stretch.

"It's a matter of me going up there and knocking the shot down," Mourning said. "I know I'm a good free-throw shooter. I'm just in a slump right now. I don't know what it is. It's just a mental thing."

Luc Longley said the Bulls will try to get into Mourning's head, as they did in their first-round sweep of the Miami Heat last season.

"We plan on making that a habit," Longley said before the Bulls' victory in Game 1. "I don't think taking it personally helps any."

But Mourning was having none of it in the early going. He had 13 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots in the game's first 18 minutes.

Last year, by the time the series ended, the Heat looked disorganized, disoriented and thoroughly discombobulated. Or, to use the familiar locker room term, they looked as if the Bulls had gotten into their heads.

Not so, coach Pat Riley said.

"They basically insulted us, that's all," he said. "That's not getting into somebody's head. They're laughing at you. Mocking you. Dismissing you. That's what they have the right to do.

"They didn't get into our heads. They beat us. If you've ever been beaten and then somebody can rub it in, so be it. That's not getting into someone's head. That's being beaten and humbled until you have another day."

Tough for Knicks: In a way, Jordan feels sorry for the New York Knicks. Jordan and his Bulls teammates expected to be playing the Knicks in this series.

The common belief is the Bulls would be facing New York if it hadn't been for that brawl between the Heat and Knicks in Game 5 of their conference semifinal series. New York had a 3-1 lead at the time, but Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston and Charlie Ward ended up being suspended for Game 6, John Starks and Larry Johnson for Game 7.

Miami, without P.J. Brown for those two games, won the series.

"Everybody knows the suspensions changed the momentum of the series," Jordan said. "It isn't like they're not supposed to get suspended. Rules are rules and we all try to honor the rules and the guidelines. Unfortunately, it happened to Patrick, and (Charles) Oakley and some of the guys on the New York team who felt this was their year, and they had to pay a price."

The Bulls took precautions against a repeat of the Miami-New York incident.

"Stay on the bench in case something happens on the floor," assistant coach Tex Winter told the team before the opening tip.

Wrongly accused: As he always does before his Bulls meet a Riley-coached team, Jackson approached the series talking about the Heat's defensive style and what he perceives as its steel-cage tactics.

"I don't know why you play that up anymore," Riley groused when asked about it.

"(Jackson) constantly keeps lobbying the officials, keeps describing a personality of a team that really isn't that. Our defense is no more physical than theirs. You take a mini-cam and you put it for 48 minutes on Michael Jordan. Just put it on him defensively and put it on (Heat guard) Voshon Lenard. I guarantee you Michael Jordan will have his hands on his man 10 times more than our guys will."